The history and origin of comics

Comics have a history of three hundred years. In China, it has only a hundred years of development history.

It first appeared in England. In the mid-18th century, Queen Victoria's husband wanted to hold an exhibition to collect some satirical drawings for murals and carpet sketches. Later, the magazine "Clumsy" copied some satirical cartoons, which were very popular, and the cartoons gradually spread. Comics are called cartoon, caricature, and comic in English. The original meaning of cartoon is murals and carpet sketches, and later it generally refers to political satires and cartoon cartoons. So comics are cartoons, and cartoons are comics. They are just called different things.

The word "cartoon" first emerged in China. "Cartoon" originally referred to a water bird, similar to a duck. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "It draws water with its mouth to find fish, and it never stops overnight." From this, it can be seen that this bird should be very diligent. This comic bird is also recorded in China's first essay "Rong Zhai Essay". (Please find the original text by yourself)

So how did the comic change from the name of a water bird to the name of a painting species?

Japanese cartoonist and "Ukiyo-e" master Katsushika Hokusai published a book in the early 19th century - "Hokusai Comics". Katsushika Hokusai thought that he didn't communicate much with people every day and just stayed at home drawing, just like comics, so he named it "Hokusai Comics". Later, he also published many works under the name "Hokusai Comics". Since then, comics have slowly evolved into a genre of painting.

Chinese comics did not start in 1925 as many materials show. In 1912, Chinese magazines had already posted cartoon advertisements for the purpose of collecting cartoons, called "Comics Selection." Therefore, there were already cartoons in China in 1912, and it can be seen from the collection of cartoons that at that time Comics are already relatively widespread, and this is no accident.

The real use of the word comics as a title for satirical and humorous paintings began in Japan. This is actually not surprising. Think of Japanese ikebana, tea ceremony, Zen and Kabuki culture. It is this eclecticism that constitutes the unique connotation of Japanese culture. As Zhou Zuoren lamented: Japan imitates Chinese culture, but it can understand that the Tang Dynasty did not use eunuchs, the Song Dynasty did not use foot binding, the Ming Dynasty did not use stereotyped writing, and the Qing Dynasty did not use opium. This is even more obvious in comic strips.

This is similar to Mr. Lu Xun’s “use doctrine”.

Mr. Lu Xun’s “use-ism” has profoundly affected the entire art circle in China. Lu Xun himself was also a painter, and the national emblem he designed was once adopted. Moreover, many of Lu Xun’s articles analyzed comics.

ps: All the information in this answer is taken from the "Comic Art Appreciation and Creation" class lecture by Yang Shushan, a professor at Tianjin University of Technology. We apologize for any misinformation. If you want to be rigorous, please investigate from multiple sources.